Posts from the ‘Fall’ Category

My January was packed and I am just now getting a chance to feel that urge to get organized and start the new year off on the right foot! I cleared out my entire email inbox yesterday. I’m going to repeat that! I CLEARED OUT MY ENTIRE INBOX! The last time that happened was two years ago. So now, my inbox is nearly empty (less than 15 emails sitting in there just waiting to be archived), but it seems as though I’ve got some photos to sort through (yikes)! In my sorting and organizing, there are a couple of dishes that were ignored and never made it into a post, so this is a Throwback Dish – as in I cooked it sometime in the last year…and am just now getting around to posting it!

Deb over at Smitten Kitchen posted this last fall while I was visiting my brother and his family in Portland, OR…it was too much to resist! (disclosure – cell phone pics – please excuse!)

Heat the oven to 400°F. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and roll out your puff pastry dough to about the size of your sheet pan, use flour to prevent the pasty from sticking to your counter.

Peel your apples, core them and cut them in half. Slice the apple halves thinly…a mandoline makes quick work of this…or slice thinly with a knife. Now…the puzzle begins. Starting on the outer edge, lay the apples around the border slightly overlapping each other, spiraling inward until you reach the center. We didn’t fit every apple slice in after circling in, so we went around and tucked in the extra slices wherever the tart needed them. Sprinkle the apples with 2 tablespoons of butter and then dot with the butter.

Bake for 30 minutes, the edges of the tart should have started to brown a bit. The tart will look dry – don’t worry…you’re fixing this problem with the salted caramel!

About 10 minutes before the tart comes out of the oven, start the caramel. In a saucepan, melt 1/4 cup of sugar over medium high heat, continue cooking it until it is coppery in color.

Off the heat, add the sea salt and butter and stir until the butter melts and is incorporated. Add the heavy cream and return to the stove over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until you have a lovely, bronzed caramel syrup, just another minute, two, tops. Set aside until needed. You may need to briefly rewarm it to thin the caramel before brushing it over the tart.

After the tart has baked, transfer it to a cooling rack, but leave the oven on. Using very short, gentle strokes, and brushing in the direction that the apples fan to mess up their design as little as possible, brush the entire tart, including the exposed pastry, with the salted caramel glaze.

Return the apple tart to the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes, until the caramel glaze bubbles. You should let the tart cool completely before serving…but I won’t tell! Serve it up plain or give it a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Very delicious right after it came out of the oven topped with the salted caramel sauce…but equally good the next day, and the day after as well. I may have had a slice whenever I walked through the kitchen. It also tasted even sweeter since I had some little hands helping me lay out all the apples thanks to my niece!

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Pumpkin Pecan Biscotti are an annual tradition for us. It would not be autumn without pumpkin cookies and my husband is a sucker for biscotti. Also…I’m guessing that you’ve got an extra can or two of pumpkin lying around from Thanksgiving. These biscotti are perfect as it seems just a teensy bit too early for christmas cookies – it’s barely December!

Full disclosure…original recipe comes from my family cookbook and stops a few steps short of making biscotti. I love the original pumpkin cookie, which turn out a bit cakey and only get better the second and third day. Feel free to make those as well – only difference is you spoon the batter into dollops on the sheet pan – they end up looking a bit like scones! We came up with the biscotti idea as Woody prefers crunchy cookies…not cakey ones!

Pour and scrape the batter into two logs on a parchment lined half-sheet pan.

Using a spatula, flatten out the batter so the biscotti loaves will cook evenly.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the tops are just beginning to brown. You want the loaves to be cooked through, otherwise slicing them cleanly will be difficult and gooey, but not so cooked that they will burn when you put them back in the oven!

Once removed from the oven, let them cool completely (they will smell really good…and it will be very difficult to not nibble the edges)!

When the loaves are cool, gently lift onto a cutting board and slice in 1/3 to 1/2 inch slices.

Lay the slices sideways on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 325º for 25 to 35 minutes. I know that is not very specific, however, this is the part of the recipe that takes a bit of experience to get it right. You want to dry out the biscotti without toasting them too much – so think low temperature for longer. Every oven is different and you could probably do this at 250º for much longer. It is also important to note that they might not seem done when you remove them from the oven, but remember that as they cool…steam (i.e. moisture) is escaping and they will continue to dry as they cool.

Cool the finished biscotti completely before storing them in any airtight container. Serve up with a steamy cup of coffee and enjoy at all hours of the day!

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We had a wonderful thanksgiving…including our four cranberry sauces…with 15 friends at 3 different houses. The evening was wonderful and the food delectable including two different turkeys (one smoked) and incredible sides and of course dessert! Apparently, that just wasn’t enough for us. Since we had quite a bit of cranberry sauce left…we decided to do Round Two (downsized a bit!) on Sunday.

We dried it off, seasoned it well with salt and pepper, placed it in a vacuum bag, added a few pats of butter and a bunch of fresh thyme, and sealed it up.

Before getting started, we turned on our thermal-immersion circulator to get it up to the temperature that we wanted – 149º F. Once it was ready, we dropped the turkey in and set a timer for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

We were so taken by the stuffing that our friend Paul made…we just had to remake it. I may have mentioned in the past my issue with soggy foods – and stuffing generally falls into this category…however, I had trouble resisting this one…it has green olives! Let me repeat…it has GREEN OLIVES! What’s not to love! We had no trouble finding the recipe since it was in one of the recent Bon Appétit and is all over the internet! Since we followed the recipe exactly (making only a half batch), I won’t write out the entire recipe here…all you need to know is that it’s called Italian Mother-in-Law Dressing and is very good!

I cooked up some chard, then onions, dried out some bread, chopped some olives, toasted some pine nuts and tossed it altogether with some rosemary and thyme!

We had one lonely sweet potato on hand, so I diced it up, steamed it a bit and then added some butter and fresh thyme.

The stuffing went into a buttered casserole dish and had the final broth and egg mixture drizzled over the top before getting covered and placed into the oven.

Cleo tends to be very interested in what we’re doing in the kitchen and has become quite bold as of late and thinks this perch on the couch is just perfect for her. I’m not sure I agree!

Apparently I did not take any photos…but we also had some mashed potatoes cooking. Rather than mashing, we used a food mill that was handed down from my parents. I’ll be honest, it has been a while since I have made mashed potatoes that good! They were so smooth and of course, it doesn’t hurt that they are really just a vessel for butter, cream and salt!

Two and a half hours later, we pulled the turkey out of the water bath.

Once you open the bag, discard the thyme and remove the skin (we saved this and cooked it up a day or two later…it crisped up nicely!). Once the breast was removed from the bone, I cut slices and drooled a bit.

And then it was time to plate it up…oh, we also had gravy…and don’t worry…all four cranberry sauces were on the table ready to be enjoyed!

The turkey was very moist, tender and flavorful. Until we are serving more than just two of us at our house…the sous vide option is just too easy and dependable to not do. This is definitely just the first of many sous vided turkey options!

Oh…I almost forgot. Let’s discuss cranberry sauces! I personally loved the chutney. I think it has found a way into my recipe box for future thanksgivings…it is savory and a little different while still maintaining that tart flavor that you want from your cranberry sauce.

At our feast, the chutney and the raw orange relish (a Connelly family recipe) were the favorites. The standard cranberry sauce (another Connelly family recipe – Thanks Dad!) also had its followers. But I have to say, I know the Mama Stamberg’s recipe is beloved by many an NPR listener, but it was just not a hit. Perhaps there were too many options!

I hope you all enjoyed an abundant Thanksgiving and were surrounded by friends and family. Anyone else have more than one thanksgiving?

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Thanksgiving is probably my most favorite of the major holidays. It involves a lot of cooking, a lot of food, and usually a lot of family and friends. Expectations are only to enjoy a meal together…no gifts are exchanged, no pressure for a new years eve kiss, no costume to come up with…just eating and hanging out with folks you like, and maybe even love!

However…I can be picky when it comes to those traditional turkey day recipes. First, stuffing and I have issues. Spoiler alert: stuffing is just soggy bread! At least in my head, that is all it is…and no one likes soggy bread. Second, let’s talk sides…I think the side dishes that make the cut for a thanksgiving feast should be savory in nature…I just can’t get on board with marshmallows and brown sugar in my sweet potatoes. Third, I’m not the biggest fan of putting fruit on my meat…which means cranberry ________ (fill in the blank) on top of my roasted turkey. But this year, I’m ready for change. Go big or go home right…?

So I went BIG and made FOUR different cranberry accoutrements for this years turkey.

Grind the raw berries and the onion together – rough chop the onion and toss both into a food processor, pulsing until they are ground…but not puréed.

Add everything else and mix together.

Put in a plastic container and freeze.

Early Thanksgiving morning, move it from freezer to refrigerator compartment to thaw. When served, it should have some little icy slivers, and be thick, creamy and have a color similar to Pepto-Bismol.

There you have it…three pictured below and 1 in the freezer for tomorrow. I’ll let you know my thoughts, ratings and a verdict on which cranberry sides passed muster.

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No…really…this is nothing more and nothing less than a small pumpkin stuffed with everything good! As it is the first day (FINALLY) of fall weather here (actual rain is falling as I type), I will take a brief break from my tomato and corn obsession.

I am not the first to plaster this recipe on a blog…and I certainly won’t be the last. This is surely a recipe that will span the test of time…and on the interwebs, that is not something to take lightly. Take Pinterest for example; it is chock-full of seasonal sweets that utilize cookie dough, a popular candy bar and for good measure, some marshmallow fluff (examples found here, here and here). Admittedly, my sweet tooth prefers understated, almost savory desserts (I’m not calling myself objective here!) and while these recipes have a purpose (bake-sales, holiday parties, novelty, etc.), our grandmothers would not recognize them from their recipe repertoire. They are trends. They may, in fact, even taste good…but they are not staples and certainly not classics. I’m sure many out there disagree with me and that is fine…as I firmly believe that it takes all kinds. This recipe is a classic for so many reasons – it is more an idea than a recipe, it is flexible, it is seasonal and does not waste any bits, it can be made up of leftovers and pantry items or each ingredient bought for its specific purpose, it is cheap and can serve a crowd. For these reasons and many more, it has a place in my recipe box. A quick google search will prove this true for many others.

The recipe is available all over the web, however I’ve posted it here is taken directly from Dorie Greenspan‘s book Around My French Table. This dish epitomizes a perfect change of seasons dish…still emphasizing the freshness of squash while the filling is casserole and stuffing all wrapped into one. Serve it with a crisp salad lightly dressed earlier in the fall or with some seared chicken sausages when a chill in the air is familiar and calls for heartier meals.

1 pumpkin, about 3 pounds

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment.

Cut the top off of the pumpkin and scrape any seeds and strings from the lid, do the same to the inside of the pumpkin. Once it is cleaned to your satisfaction, liberally season the inside of the pumpkin with kosher salt and pepper, you can also drizzle a little bit of olive oil in there as well, but it doesn’t absolutely need it. Place it on the parchment on the baking sheet.

Toss all the stuffing ingredients together in a bowl (bread, cheese, garlic, onion, bacon, and herbs). I had some kale on hand, so I chopped it up and tossed that in as well. Season the mixtures with fresh ground pepper and some additional salt being careful not to over-salt as the cheese and bacon are already a bit salty.

Pack the mixture into the pumpkin…make sure it is filled! We ended up with enough stuffing for an entire additional casserole dish which we buttered before adding the stuffing.

Mix the cream together with the nutmeg and of course, season with salt and pepper and then pour it over the stuffing into the pumpkin.

The cream provides the majority of the moisture for the stuffing, so don’t skimp…but your stuffing should not be swimming in the cream either.

Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours—check after 90 minutes—or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. It was so cute, I could hardly stand it!

Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.

When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, very carefully—it’s heavy, hot, and wobbly—bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you’ll bring to the table.

I cut wedges and plated it with a lightly dressed salad the included some microgreens from Trader Joe’s.

The stuffing itself is delicious, but with a scoop of the tender pumpkin flesh, it is *literally* a perfect fall dinner. I’ve got so many ideas of what to stuff a little pumpkin with…sausage, wild rice, apples, linguiza, chestnuts, the list is endless! What would you stuff your pumpkin with?

It is wonderfully chilly outside now, but I need to temper my excitement for fall as the forecast is calling for 90’s next week. Look for yet another post containing corn or tomatoes…or both.

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I am currently jealous of any person currently living in an area where the daily high temperatures are not rising above 70º. Here in southern California…we’re still in the thick of the heat. Today we had a major dip and the high was only 84º! Last week, husband and I were enjoying a late summer vacation around the Teton region in Wyoming and Idaho and although it was certainly cooler…it was still ridiculously hot for this late in September. Wild fires still abound and our days were filled with smoky haze. However the brisk early mornings and waning light left me hungry for fall weather. Casserole weather.

I love enchiladas as they tend to include cheese (love), corn tortillas (love) and they beg to be topped with the quintessential Tex-Mex garnish of sliced canned black olives.

No, these hybrid enchiladas will not get you more miles to the gallon…but they are a mixture of enchilada preparation styles from both my family and my husband’s family.

Woody likes his enchiladas on the spicy-side and I prefer it a bit milder so I tried to maximize the flavor of the sauce while not creating a volcanic sauce that would ruin the fun of my dinner. Truly…I winged it.

In its most basic form, enchilada sauce is tomato sauce that has been flavored with chilies, onions and spices. There are plenty of recipes out there to use as a starting point. You’ll also notice from the above photo, that I used a portion of prepared enchilada sauce in making my sauce. I tend to not love the sauces straight from the can, but they can enhance the depth of your sauce and make things a bit more complex.

Enchiladas can be made with flour or corn tortillas. I like both, but they are very different, with corn being more authentic. To use corn tortillas and make them malleable, you need to soften each one in a bit of hot vegetable or canola oil first. Heat a shallow fry pan that is at least the size of your tortillas with ¼” of oil in the bottom. You are not trying to make crispy tortillas…rather they should soak up a bit of oil which will make them easy to roll without tearing and ripping. Using tongs, slip each tortilla into the warm oil for no more than 5-15 seconds per side and stack warm on a plate. It’s best to do more than you think you will need so you don’t have to go back and repeat this step. When the oil gets low, just add a bit more and let it heat back up. If the oil is spitting, it is probably too hot.

I filled these enchiladas with jack cheese and Ortega green chiles. Cut the cheese into ¼ to 1/3 inch logs and slice the canned whole green chiles into lengthwise slices. Place one of each onto a tortilla and roll tightly and place the seam side down into a baking dish. Continue until you have filled the pan and squished in as many as possible.

While I was building the enchiladas, my sauce was bubbling away on the stove. When the pan is filled, it is time to lade the sauce over the enchiladas.

I started the sauce with sautéing a thinly sliced onion which is why it looks a bit chunky and stringy.

Smooth sauce over the top, letting it settle into the nooks and crannies. Tope with shredded cheese and (of course) sliced black olives.

Now it’s time to bake this delicious pan of cheesy goodness. You can also wrap it with foil and freeze it at this point – I had enough to feed an army…so I froze a whole second pan for sometime in November! Bake at 350º for 20-30 minutes (from frozen it will probably need more like 45-60 minutes – and you can put it directly in a cold oven, and that way you can avoid the risk of your dish breaking from temperature shock as it will heat up with the oven). If it is browning too quickly, cover with a piece of foil.

Let it stand for a few minutes once you remove it from the oven and then serve it up with your favorite sides. We went with beans and a little garnish of fresh cilantro and a dollop of sour cream (which didn’t make it into the photo).

Side note: I out-spiced myself with this particular dish. In my attempt to satisfy my husband’s need for some heat…I went a bit far with the chiles, cayenne and chile powder. Oops! At least one of us loved it! The sour cream helped me cool down the dish for my pathetic pallet.

What are you cooking now that the weather has turned (in most places)?

Although this was not the first meal of 2012…it is worthy of the first post! It all began back in November of 2011…actually, to really get to the beginning…we have to go back to July 21, 2006…

That’s the day I officially became a gun owner (having never in my life , thought that I would own a gun!) The next day I got married…and soon(ish) I put that gun to use and became a (bird) hunter. Let’s not get carried away here…I’m no Ted Nugent…however, I do believe that you should be honest about your relationship with food and be willing to (at least once) participate directly in acquiring meat for you table that normally comes cleanly packaged with nary a hint of it’s life before Styrofoam, refrigeration and shipping.

While we are being honest…my husband was the hunter who shot the birds for this meal…and our dog is the one who joyfully retrieved them for us…I just cooked them up and took a lot of photos!

We visited family over the Thanksgiving break and spent some time near Heber, UT…the weather was brisk but certainly not cold! Woody skipped out on a morning of thanksgiving prep and took Cleo (our Braque Français (French Pointer) bird-dog) out to the plains on the south-west side of Utah Valley to hunt for pheasant. He returned smiling with a couple of birds.

Cleo rested in the sun-warmed truck while Woody took to ‘breasting’ the birds. Essentially cutting the skin at the breast bone and exposing both breasts and cutting them out without having to pluck the bird as the feathers make it a very messy process.

I think feathers are one of nature’s great beauties…so intricate, light, complex and impressive!

Woody started with a hen.

Then moved on to the rooster pheasant – much more brightly colored.

Pheasants are stunning and happen to taste delicious as well!

This is Pippa very interested in the bird, but not quite sure what to do with it.

Now Golden Retrievers normally retrieve, but Molly, Pippa and Sam have not had opportunities to do so other than with their balls and toys…and that is more for the fun of it than for any real purpose. Woody was attempting to coerce a retrieval out of at least one of the gold squadron…but it was not a show-stopping performance. All dogs got very excited at the prospect of something being thrown…and would go right to it…and then sniff and look up confused as to what was supposed to happen next. Urban retrievers…what are you going to do???…really!

Fast forward a day or so…after gorging ourselves with thanksgiving dinner and playing some cranium late into the evening, the cooking begins!

Start with sautéed onions (never a bad idea)!

Luckily, there were still odds and ends of unused vegetables from the turkey day feast! Rough-chopped mushrooms – throw them in the pan as well…

Let those soften and cook down a bit, I think I de-glazed the pan with a bit of white wine and some water, and then go ahead and add the smattering of herbs!

Sage and thyme!

I added some heavy cream si it could be gin to thicken and reduce while the pheasant and the waffles get cooking.

The pheasants resulted in a wonderful little nuggets with a few larger breast pieces…which were kept wrapped in wax paper in an unsealed ziplock in the fridge in between being extracted from the birds and making to the hot pan.

Each piece was salted and peppered and coated in seasoned flour.

Knock off any excess flour and place in a hot pan with melted butter and a little oil to increase the smoke point.

Don’t crowd the pan…it’ll cool off to quickly and the breast won’t brown properly.

Continue to check on the ‘gravy’ to make sure it doesn’t thicken up too much.

Waffles were already on the menu for the morning…and the batter was nicely balanced – not too fluffy or sweet. Start making waffles!